The hotel called this the "American-style meal." One of the goodies on a stick there is an octopus leg.

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This is more what I'd call an "American Style" meal... HAMBURGER sushi!

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For over ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS you can buy this melon in a wooden box and give it to someone as a gift.

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I got a free sample of Coffee Jelly. I thought it was just a weird translation of "frappuccino," but no, this is a Starbucks made-for-Japan-only specialty. It's a frappuccino with brown jelly floating around inside. There is a reason it has not been exported our way... as an American taste-tester, I can say it was yucky.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

After the brutal realization that he was butter, and would always be butter, Butter would go on either to accept the truth and do something meaningful with his life, or face a complete and irreversible nervous breakdown.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Yesterday we went to a city called Hamamatsu. I got a short Starbucks coffee there for 280 Yen, which is about $3 US. For the first time I was able to stay awake the entire day. The 13 hour time difference has been rough to get used to!

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We went to a factory where they make the famous eel pies.

They aren't really pies, but like cracker/pastry things. And they don't taste like eel to me. They really are very good.

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A Japanese-style toilet. This really is not as difficult as it may seem.

The real trick is to remember to bring your own toilet paper, because it is not complementary in most public places.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

In 1994 I went to Japan for 5 weeks with my college friend Kaori, and I always thought I'd go back someday. Over the years I pretty much concluded that was not going to happen. It's too expensive, George can't take too much time off work, etc, etc...

Then a couple of months ago when Kaori said she's going back to visit her family in April, I suddenly got an itch to go... a really big itch.

So here I go... without George, just me, Kaori, and her two little kids. I'm staying for two weeks, April 16-30.

Tomorrow morning I'm taking off at 9:40 to Detroit, where I will meet up with Kaori, Yashima, and Tokiwa. I'm looking forward to a relaxing lunch there and my last cup of Starbucks before I enter the land of green tea. (Actually, they have Starbucks there, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's $6 a cup).

Then we'll be on a 13 hour flight to Tokyo. After we land around 3am US time, we'll take a four hour train ride to their house. Kaori said her last trip to Japan was a total of 30 hours of travel from her house in Missouri to her parents' house in Yui.

I am going to take tons of photos and video and buy funny souvenirs with Engrish, and draw stuff, and hopefully blog some of it while I'm still over there.

George will be missing me, but he's been working over-time a lot. I sent my fur boy to stay with his grandparents and dog cousins. I'll be back in a couple of weeks with plenty of green tea and Hi-Chew.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Why is it so hard for me to come up with something to blog about these days?

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Why is it that I go in to the mall to buy a new pair of flip-flops, and I come out with a bag full of bath towels?

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Sometimes I actually enjoy the sport of looking for a good parking space, especially when I win.

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When I was in college, it was very geeky to wear your backpack with both straps. We called those people "two strapers." I was glad when that stigma ended, because my one shoulder was starting to hurt real bad.